New street in Transcona named after longtime minister of Memorial United Church

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This article was published 02/07/2016 (3759 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers already travel on Provencher Boulevard, Taché Avenue and Anderson Avenue, streets honouring the city’s earliest Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops.

Soon they’ll be able to navigate Carol Fletcher Way, a new residential street off Regent Avenue named after a longtime minister of Transcona Memorial United Church.

“She’s turned the church almost into an unofficial community centre,” says Coun. Russ Wyatt, who represents the Transcona area on city council, of why Fletcher is being recognized with a street sign.

The yet-to-be-built street is located in Crocus Meadows, a new development between Ravelston and Concordia avenues.

During her 28 years at Transcona Memorial in team ministry with her husband, Jeff Cook, Fletcher has focused on building community and developing connections between the congregation of about 150 worshippers and the rest of Transcona.

These days, she’s turning her efforts to building of another kind — planning, fundraising and overseeing the construction at the main entrance of the Yale Avenue West church.

The $1.75-million, three-level project adds two gender-neutral washrooms, new women’s and men’s washrooms, a multi-purpose room and a windowed waiting area next to the front door.

“It’s about providing a space where people are bringing their youngest and most vulnerable to be safe,” says Fletcher, who says the former elevator was too small to easily transport wheelchairs and strollers.

“It’s all about caring for the most vulnerable in a program to reduce isolation that is life-giving for them.”

Between the 1953-era worship space and the gym and church hall built a decade later, the church complex had at least six levels, many stairs, basement washrooms inaccessible to those using wheelchairs and a cramped and totally inadequate elevator.

“It’s all about bathrooms, elevator and community space,” Fletcher says about the project funded by government grants and donations from the church and community and slated to be completed by the end of the year.

“It’s because we are such a vital community space that we have made this commitment to the community.”

Already home to a nursery school, weekly support groups, exercise classes, Girl Guides, music recitals, an Alzheimer’s support group and Transcona’s food bank, the new addition will make the existing 11,000-square-foot community space easier to navigate, says Fletcher.

Several community groups are temporarily meeting elsewhere until the construction is completed at the end of 2016, although the food bank continues serving 120 families on the first and third Thursdays of the month.

“That’s what it’s all about is community work in our church, isn’t it?” says Midge Barry, who volunteers as the secretary-treasurer for the food bank.

“It’s an atmosphere of grace,” adds Fletcher, referring to how the food bank serves users. “Everyone is respected and honoured.”

That respect reflects right back on the 54-year-old Fletcher, who is thrilled and just a bit humbled to have her name permanently affixed to a city street sign.

Overwhelmed by the gesture, she prefers to talk instead about her vision for the renovated community wing of the church building and the programs it houses.

“Everything that is recreation is also re-creation, in that it is life-giving and community building,” she says, referring to the 1,800 people who come through Transcona Memorial each month for various programs.

“My role is to be present and extend the hand of partnership.”

That sense of partnership, combined with Fletcher’s long record of community service, makes her an ideal candidate to be recognized on a street sign, says Wyatt.

“Many people are recognized with street names,” says Wyatt, who added that Transcona streets also bear names of prominent residents such as former MP Bill Blaikie, Albert El Tassi of Peerless Garments and school trustee Helen Mayba.

“I think individuals who work with churches need to be recognized as well.”

brenda@suderman.com

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